SXSW Interview: Pines

When I first heard about the electronic musical stylings of Australian based band Pines a few years ago, I was immediately hooked. Since then, the band always finds some room on my playlists for pretty much any time and feeling. Their music just sort of works that way. As a fan of the band, it was an easy call for me to send them interview questions when they hit me up. Hit the jump for their thoughts on SXSW.

All questions answered by band members Adam and James.

ATH: There was a lot of hubbub last year concerning corporate sponsors and pay to play and what not at SXSW. As a band, what’s your reason for coming to pay at the festival? What do you hope to get out of it?

In addition to being artists, both James and I are huge music fans and have followed SXSW closely, watching artists rise from being relatively unknown to huge international touring acts and a lot of times, SXSW was where things really kicked off for them. Were excited to go and experience everything SXSW has to offer and see firsthand the emerging acts that will go on to do amazing things. Our hope is that we can make some great connections with US and European-based labels and booking agents as well as build relationships with other artists whilst growing our US following. Wed ideally love to get back over to the US again as soon as possible for a more extensive tour.

ATH: For most SXSW sets, you get 30 minutes to leave a lasting impression. What’s your plan of attack? You have a set list mapped out yet?

Weve got a pretty good idea of what our set will look like. As an electronic act, we like to throw a few surprises into our set and create some unique and interesting transitions and interpretations of both released and unreleased music. Being a relative newcomer we have quite a bit of unreleased music that well be showcasing in some form during our set. We really cant wait to get over and play, its going to be a lot of fun!

ATH: The festival caters to music fans, but food and booze are an important aspect of the fans and the bands. What’s your band’s food and beverage of choice?

Living in Australia, Mexican cuisine is nowhere near as good as it is in North America, so were really looking forward to plenty of Tex-Mex food and a few Mojitos.

ATH: There are tons of bands coming into town. Who would you ideally like to play with of the 1000s of bands gracing our city? Make your own optimal line-up.

Our tastes are pretty eclectic, but some acts we would love to see live (in no particular order) would be Joey Bada$$, The Drums, Real Estate, Thievery Corporation, Wu Tang Clan, Chrome Sparks and we just read there might be a Frank Ocean secret show this year that would be epic.

ATH: We are partial to SXSW obviously, but what festival do you feel is the best around?

For us, our dream festival to both play at or attend would be Coachella. Of course there are so many wed love to play/attend. Our short list would probably include Splendour In The Grass (our major home festival!), Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Oya Festival in Norway and of course Glastonbury in the UK. Actually, throw in Holy Ship! A cruise ship festival would be amazing.

ATH: Let’s say your band has been booked an official showcase at a pop up venue somewhere in the middle of 6th street. The lineup features thrash metal, hip-hop, spoken word, and you. The sound is horrible, the lineup is not your style, and the crowd seems angry at the world. How would your band deal with such a situation?

It probably wouldnt phase us too much, our music and style is generally upbeat, electronic, and danceable so wed just focus on putting on the best show we could, having a bit of fun and trying to get the crowd up and about!

ATH: What’s your favorite album to come out in the last year? What’s playing in the tour bus?

ATH: The digital age is upon us, like it or not. What are your band’s thoughts on streaming services like spotify, pandora, etc.? Blow em all up? Or embrace the future?

Embrace the future! We love the streaming services as both music fans and artists. Discovery is so much easier and more accessible. We would have never discovered the number of new artists as we have in recent years. Plus a streaming subscription is much better on the wallet! As an artist being able to get our music to listeners globally with a few clicks is the greatest. That said we did buy The Avalanches – Wildflower album on vinyl last year so theres definitely still a place for physical albums 🙂